Practice Makes Perfect
by Bellatrix28
Summary: If at first you don't succeed, try, try again.  Light isn't going to make it easy for Fang, that's for sure. Flight, other couples possible as well. AU. Multi-chapter.  T rating for now, it may go up later.
1. Chapter 1

I don't own FF 13 or the characters.

I'm planning on this being a multi-chapter fic, sorry if I don't update that quickly (only one more semester of college to go!). If, somehow, you've also read my Bleach multi-chapter, sorry for not having updated it for a year. I still think about it often, but don't really have much motivation... we'll see how that one goes.

I couldn't really think of a title...

Anyway, please R and R!

***Revised on January 12th, 2013. (Just the Fang & Vanille history.)

* * *

><p>Practice Makes Perfect<p>

Chapter 1

There she was again. She had only been coming here for about 6 months (rough calculation) and she already acted like she owned the place. Talking to people, being all smarmy and friendly with the other patrons at the gym.

_Who does she think she is?_

_You're only jealous because she doesn't talk to you like that... or because you've been here twice as long and nobody talks to you like they do her._

Neither were true.

_Both are true._

So, perhaps Lightning had come to the recent conclusion that there was a bit of truth to each statement. She would deny it, of course, if ever asked. But denial can only last so long.

Lightning swiveled her head slightly to watch the brunette continue on her path of likeability. The next person in line was a fellow brunette doing some squats with 20 or so pounds of weights in her hands – nothing Lightning couldn't easily do. The annoying one, who Lightning thought had introduced herself as "Fang" to many people, put a steadying hand on the other woman's back. It looked like Fang was critiquing her on her technique of the exercise.

Lightning noticed that she did this often. Not very many people minded the help, most welcomed it, and some even sought it out. It drove Lightning crazy. She didn't understand how anyone could have the audacity to just go up to a stranger and tell them they're doing it wrong and how to do it better. Thankfully, Fang had never felt the need to do this with Lightning.

Fang had removed her hand from the woman's back a while ago, but they still continued talking. It looked like a fun conversation with all the laughing that seemed to be going on. Lightning couldn't tell what was being said over the music being pumped into her ears by her iPod.

She preferred it this way; the music loudly in her ears as her legs pumped along to the beat, all while on the treadmill. The little earbud headphones also deterred people from talking to her, which was to her liking. Lightning was here to work out, not to talk to people, not to make friends. Strictly business, so to speak.

The conversation with the brunette had ended and now Fang was walking over to the women's locker rooms. Lightning's head wasn't the only one that turned during Fang's short walk across that side of the room. This wasn't surprising since Fang wore her usual black workout bra and some semi-loose fitting shorts, _probably with some short spandex under them, _Lightning thought. Fang would often work up a nice sweat that would make her light brown skin glisten nicely – accentuating her tone muscles all over her body. Fang finally entered the locker rooms. Everyone that had been previously following her with their eyes now needed to find something else to keep them occupied while working out.

There was only a mile left that Lightning needed to run before starting her cool down and stopping the machine. She took the headphones out of her ears, shifting her strawberry blonde hair slightly – though her hair was more on the pink side, if one wanted to be specific. Within those ten or so minutes she was certain that Fang had already left the building – the brunette was a pretty fast changer. Lightning liked this about Fang. It meant that she didn't have to delay leaving the building just to avoid her.

Lightning took a drink from her water bottle and stooped down to collect her bag at the side of the treadmill. She didn't trust leaving her bag in the locker room, she didn't want to pay for a locker, and she didn't see the point when she'd be home in a few minutes to shower and change anyway. She only used the lockers to change from her school cloths into her workout cloths – cloths that she also kept in her bag, which also doubled as her school backpack.

Having collected her things, the pink haired woman began to leave. Her heart rate was still raised slightly as she walked down the hall, a hall made by the men's and women's locker rooms being on either side of it, towards the entrance/exit of the building. Lightning saw the big blockhead working behind the desk of the gym. His name was Snow, a name that fit well with his lightly colored hair. She knew this because of the many times that he introduced himself to her, not once had she given her name back in return.

"Have a good night," Snow politely called from behind the desk.

Lightning gave a brief nod of acknowledgment before leaving the building through the glass doors.

It was only a ten minute walk to her apartment – the reason that she didn't cool down enough while at the gym. She considered the walk home as her second cool down from a long workout. It was also nice to still have a little warmth in her body to shield herself from the cold, dark nippy night.

* * *

><p>"What's her name?"<p>

"I don't know," responded Fang, a little bit frustrated. This wasn't the first time Vanille had asked this question and she doubted it would be the last.

It's been about five years since Vanille walked into Fang's life. It had been a rainy day and the younger had been crying while wandering the street by where Fang lived. She had an immediate connection with the girl, and they hadn't even met yet, but that's often how it goes when you see someone walking down your own previous path in life.

Fang took the barely-fourteen year old into her 'abode' and since that day has always been a willing shoulder for Vanille to cry on. A strong sisterly bond developed – one they both knew would never be broken. It was a small family, but one both were glad to have; Fang having lost her family years before and Vanille having been rejected by hers when Fang found her on the street.

To say that it had been hard and emotional for them for awhile would be an understatement. But they worked through most of it together; usually only being upset with each other when Vanille started dating people that Fang did not approve of.

But even though they had such a strong bond, it didn't stop Fang from being annoyed with Vanille when being questioned yet again. And the older woman knew what was coming next.

"What has it been..." Vanille paused, thinking, "six months since you started working out there and you still don't know her name?"

Fang glared at her. "No, it's only been five months and two weeks."

Vanille's green eyes rolled up towards the ceiling. "Whatever, same difference. You've managed to learn just about everyone else's name at the gym, except for the girl's that you like. How has _this_ happened?" She was actually curious. The orange-haired girl had never seen Fang have problems talking with a girl before.

Fang started pacing back and forth in the living room. Not that there was much room for her to walk since their apartment was rather small. "She's just, ugh, hard to talk to... she doesn't waste any time before or after her workout, doesn't seem to use the locker rooms, she listens to music while working out, she doesn't seem to talk to anyone, and she has really good technique. _But_," Fang said with emphasis, "I know that her eyes follow me around the gym..."

"..whose wouldn't?"

"...I catch her in the mirrors sometimes staring at me – not even in her direct line of sight, she has to turn her body a little bit sometimes."

"Well, that's a good sign," Vanille encouraged, turning into her optimistic self once again.

Despite the encouragement, Fang sighed, "I don't even know if she's into women."

"Who _isn't_ into women?"

Fang gave her roommate an incredulous stare. She hoped Vanille wouldn't find this out the hard way. Not everyone was as lucky as her when it came to having crushes.

* * *

><p>AN (January 12, 2013):<p>

Changes were made concerning Fang and Vanille's history.

...but actually uploaded on November 18, 2013 – sorry it took me so long.


	2. Chapter 2

Practice Makes Perfect

Chapter 2

_Ha!_ Fang thought. _She's finally doing something wrong!_

The brunette saw her opening and decided to take it... well, mentally preparing herself before actually walking over to the pink haired woman. A new machine had arrived at the gym a couple of days ago, and apparently it was one that this woman had never used before.

The machine was tall and had multiple exercise areas to it, going around it in the circle, each of them different. Only one of the exercise stations had the pink haired and pale skinned woman using bad technique. White metal of the machine rose high in its center, the anchor for all the parts, from it another piece of metal jutted out about 8 inches above the floor, creating a foot hold for the person using the station that the woman was at. Five or so feet above the foot hold was some more metal coming out from the middle anchor. This metal split into two directions, making a sort of narrow, horizontal football goal post. At the very ends of it were vertical hand bars and towards the ends were some pads on the metal to relax your forearms. The exerciser was supposed to use the arm supports to raise their body up so they could then raise their legs horizontally – a great exercise for the abdominal and other muscles.

Superficially it wouldn't look like the athletic woman was doing anything wrong, but Fang had a decently trained eye. She could see that the woman's shoulders were too tense, too raised. The woman seemed to be starting her movement from her arms and shoulders instead of purely from her stomach. She needed to relax a bit in her superior appendages – much easier said than done, but no one ever said that good technique was easy.

Fang was taking another minute to think of how to approach her (and to also finish her reps of lunges).

_She doesn't seem like the talkative type..._

_And she's still listening to her iPod... _She wouldn't have been able to tell except for the headphone wires coming down around the front of her neck, where the two wires joined into one, and then continued down to the music player that was teasingly tucked between her shorts and her hip for safekeeping.

None of Fang's thoughts were optimistic any longer. Sure, she now had a reason to talk to the woman, but she was still being shut down when it came to actually doing it. She finally just decided to walk up to her and go with whatever came to her mind at the time.

Fang raised from her last lunge forward and put the free weight back on the rack where it belonged (after wiping it down with a small, white towel and some sanitizer, as was the gym's policy). She turned and started walking towards this taciturn lady she had been eyeballing over the last few months. The woman was currently taking a break between her repetitions of the abdominal exercise, her arms and hands still in their places, but her body is lowered so she can rest on the foot supports.

The walk was the usual steady swagger that Fang uses, crossing the area from the pink haired woman's right hand side. She still wasn't exactly sure what she was going to say to her, but she was sure it would come to her soon enough. Fang's heart rate started to increase as she got closer, and she knew it had nothing to do with the work out she had been doing previously. Either her heart grew or her ribcage shrunk, she was sure of it. There was no way the involuntary muscle would be beating so hard against the bones any other way. At least any increase in sweat production or blood rushing to her cheeks wasn't noticeable.

Fang's green eyes noticed that the woman started to take a few deep breaths in and out as she anticipated doing another round of reps on the machine. The pale woman slightly pushed off the foot hold and stabilized her body by flexing certain muscles in her hands, arms, and upper body. Fang noticed the defined line of the flexing bicep of the woman's left arm. She started to smile as her eyes unconsciously started to wander along the beautifully pale body.

A white tank top allowed her eyes to soak in the muscles of the woman's shoulders, arms, and neck. The blue sports bra, that wasn't completely covered by the tank top straps, just made Fang focus on the area more. But after a quick moment her gaze lowered. Stomach muscles tightened as legs were lifted horizontally. Even under a layer of clothing Fang could still tell that they were well defined muscles. It also helped that a portion of the woman's tank top started to slide up her torso as she repeated the exercise. From this morsel of skin showing between the shirt and the blue shorts Fang could see a nice cut between the hip bone and abs. Her eyes were attracted once again to the iPod that was tucked in nicely beside the creamy hip. Legs moved back down and quickly came back up, staying straight at the knee the whole time, toes always pointed. There was a nice, shadowed line between the quadriceps and hamstring muscles of the upper leg, made visible by the short (but not skimpy) shorts the woman was wearing.

Fang's breathing unconsciously started to deepen as her mind got lost at the sight of the spectacular female specimen in front of her. Eyes started to wander back up the body, noticing things that had been skimmed over before – things she had acknowledged in the months before, but which she seemed to have forgotten about until this moment. Like the strong vein in the woman's forearm.

Fang had always had a thing for veins. _Oh, Shiva, help me..._

Green eyes started to look further up at the sunset-pink hair and the asymmetric cut it used to frame her face. This scan from head to toe, and back to head, only took a few seconds to take in the beauty of the long, slender, and athletic frame. It finally ended by looking at the crystal blue eyes. Fang had never seen eyes this light of blue that still managed to seem too bright. Looking directly into them was like being dropped into ice-water, it was a shock to the body and made lungs tighten.

It was this shock to her body that made her realize that the woman _was_ looking directly at her. By this point Fang was only fifteen feet away, her trajectory heading straight for the woman. Cool blue eyes gave Fang a questioning look and pink-brown eyebrows lowered.

Fang's confident stride staggered when she realized she had been caught by the woman she was so hungrily gazing at. She averted her line of sight, no longer being able to handle the blue-eyed glare. Fang's olive brown skin tone couldn't conceal the flush appearing on her cheeks – a redness that hadn't appeared since she was a teenager.

_Fuck!_ Fang thought as she went to a spontaneous plan B. She changed the angle of her walk slightly, eyes down as she passed the woman. Her cheeks flared further as she could feel the blue eyes still trained on her, but the woman still continuing with her exercise, which Fang was thankful for.

Just to the machine next to the woman was an older man, a man that Fang had been getting to know since joining this gym. His name was Sazh. He had dark skin and a good sized afro.

"What's up, Sazh?" Fang asked as she reached the spot in front of him. The redness in her cheeks starting to subdue slightly, but not nearly as much as she would like.

"Same old, same old," he replied, giving her a smile. "This body of mine isn't getting any younger, but what can I do?" he asked not really expecting an answer. He continued to do some toe-raisers with a machine adding weight to his shoulders for resistance. He slowly used his calf muscles to raise his heals up, hold it for a second, and then slowly lower his body before starting again.

Fang guffawed. "You're not _that_ old, man!" Her mind was only slightly taken off of the woman that was still near by, but out of sight. The brunette found it ridiculous that she hadn't been able to talk to her, got caught staring, and made a fool out of herself. Her pride had been slapped by someone she didn't know, something she wasn't sure had ever happened before. Sure, she had been made a fool before, but she had never cared much about it.

"Hey now. Don't judge until you've been a mile in my worn shoes."

_There is no winning with this man when it comes to talking about his age, _Fang thought. She decided to change the subject. "How was your weekend?"

"It was good. My son and I went to the zoo – one of his favorite places. He loves seeing the newly born chocobos. It took a lot of convincing to make him realize that we couldn't take one home with us." He laughed at the end.

"Those are cute little chicks," she said thinking of the yellow, little puffballs that grew into human-sized birds. When they were fully grown they could eat just about anyone out of house and home.

"Indeed, they are," agreed Sazh. "But not really something we can take care of at the moment."

"Haha, yeah, of course."

"How was your weekend?" Sazh politely asked the question back.

"It was good. Nothing too exciting happened, though."

"I find that unlikely. You were probably out partying with some girlfriends of yours."

"Ha! I can hardly get one girlfriend, let alone multiple!" Fang said this a bit louder than she had wanted. Her face turned a bit red again as she hoped the woman behind her couldn't hear her, hoping the music she was listening to was drowning out the sound of her voice.

"Oh, come on, "Sazh was a bit exasperated, "I'm sure you have friends you go and do stuff with."

Fang realized that she had mistook his words to mean something else. _Why do people use the same word for two different things?_ she thought angrily. She doesn't like that some people use the same word for friends that are girls and when someone is romantically involved with a girl. She lamented that she hadn't figured out which meaning he had meant by the context of his sentence, _It's quite obvious_. She mentally smacked her forehead with her palm.

"Oh, yeah, of course," she tried to recover, waving her hand dismissively. Fang could tell that the "old" man found her reaction a bit odd, a little bit off. She could see the change in his eyes and facial features as realization hit him, he stopped exercising. His head nodded once slightly and the ends of his closed mouth widened as he smiled slightly. She took it as his way of saying that he didn't care. This subject had been something they had never discussed before. She continued with what she was going to say as he continued lifting and lowering his body. "But I just stayed at home, taking care of my room mate since she had started to get sick." Fang shrugged her shoulders, it was no big deal.

"That was nice of you."

Fang shrugged her shoulders. "Well, I better finish my workout so I can get home and pop some soup in the microwave for dinner."

"Alright, have a good night. I hope your room mate gets feeling better."

"Thanks, you too. See ya later," Fang said and then started walking the way that she had come, her eyes focused steadily on the far wall of the room – she didn't trust herself to look at the pink haired woman again so soon.

* * *

><p>Lightning dropped her bag on the chair in her apartment's small living room. She also wished that she could drop into it... <em>or onto my bed.<em> She was tired, but she needed to get dinner started so she'd have it done by the time her sister, Serah, got home. It was Monday night, the night that her little sister had her early evening class at the local university. The only night that the older sister was in charge of dinner and she liked to make sure she did it well enough that her sister wouldn't feel the need to take that night's cooking over as well. It's the least she could do.

Long legs started walking towards the kitchen area of the room – the entrance, living room, and kitchen being smushed into one area of the abode. Beside the stove was the usual piece of paper. It was the instructions and ingredients needed to make the meal. Serah usually picked what dinner was to be made and left the paper for it by the stove before she left for school in the mid-morning, hours after Lightning had already left.

Lightning noted that it looked like Serah had printed off this recipe from the Internet earlier today. Every now and again the younger sister would like to try something new, but she'd usually make it herself instead of having Lightning make it the first time. _I guess this time she thinks I won't screw it up._

A pot was taken out of a cupboard, spoons, spatulas, measuring cups, and ingredients from the fridge and other cabinets soon lay next to it. Another look at the recipe told her how to get started making the beef stroganoff.

The website that Serah printed it from told her how long it should take (about one hour and forty minutes, _giving me twenty minutes to spare before Serah should be home_), how many servings it made (four), and that the serving amount had been changed from the original recipe, but the cooking time was still for the original amount (six to eight servings). Lightning also noted that Serah had handwritten some changes to the recipe at the bottom of the page, also explaining that she read some comments on the recipe and wanted to try some things that someone had suggested. Lightning sighed and exchanged the cream cheese for the sour cream from the fridge, along with some other things. This also explained why she couldn't find some of the original ingredients in the fridge. She was glad that Serah chooses and shops for the meals on Saturday or Sunday, making sure that they have everything that they would need.

First, Lightning needed to cut the beef into about inch cube pieces. Her precision with a knife served her well here. How she got so good with a blade she wasn't quite sure. _Natural talent, I guess._ She was quickly done slicing the chunk of meat, so she moved onto chopping some onion.

She began filling the pot with the beef as her thoughts began to wander to what happened an hour ago at the gym. _Was she staring at me?.. of course she was, what else could she have been doing? _An image flashed in her mind, first with Fang's eyes on her lower body and then staring into her eyes. _She had such an intense gaze. ...One fourth cup beef broth_, she thought as she poured the closest thing to her into the measuring cup and then the pot. _Was it an "I'm interested in you" stare or a "I don't like you, back off" stare? ...One can of Condensed Golden Mushroom soup... She was definitely checking me out. _A smirk appeared unconsciously on her face. _Her eyes seemed way too busy looking at my body to be pissed off at me. ...One half cup chopped onion... Ha! _Lightning remembered Fang's reaction to getting caught. _She definitely blushed! _

A thought formed in the back of her head, hardly a conscious one that had actual words put to it. It was an image of a blush forming on the brunette's cheeks. Lightning felt an immediate attraction towards her – more so than before. _It was cute. It was not "cute," _she started to battle with herself. _One tablespoon Worcestershire sauce... Ugh, _she was getting tired denying her interest in this woman. Another image came uncontrollably to her mind. This time it was the woman's tan, tone arms as the woman swaggered towards her in a t-shirt that had the sleeves cut off. Lightning mentally licked her lips, but then physically shook her head as she tried to focus again on the ingredients before her. _...One fourth cup water. _She reached over to the sink and turned on the tap and partially filled the plastic measuring cup. The chunky mixture in the pot was getting more and more voluminous, but it still didn't fill very much of it.

The tired woman looked back at the recipe paper and read through the top list. Water was the penultimate ingredient on it, with only the cream cheese (_sour cream_) listed behind it because it would be added in just before serving. Blue eyes then lowered to Serah's handwriting. The second change to the recipe was to switch out the ¼ cup water for ¼ cup beef broth...

"Shit!"

_Did I already put beef broth in? _And_ I just put in water? _Lightning gripped the counter, trying to remember what she had done. _What's done is done_, she thought and then sighed.

Pale arms quickly moved to finish putting in the couple of ingredients that were left and turned on the stove to what seemed like the appropriate heat and set a timer to just a little bit below what was recommended for the original recipe.

She had about an hour of time to kill before she would have to start working on the beef stroganoff again. Lightning quickly moved back to the chair in the living room where her backpack was. A heavy textbook was pulled out of the black bag. A few seconds later the couch was laid upon; Lightning's back against the armrest as her feet almost touched the other one. There wasn't much room in the apartment to accommodate a longer couch.

The book was opened up to where the blue piece of paper lay between its white pages. Lightning settled further into the couch, lowering her back against the soft armrest and bending her legs at the knee so she could more easily prop the thick text book against them. Muscles finally relaxed as she began to read for her genetics class. It was a basic chapter on chromosomes, something which she had already learned about a couple of times in the past, which made the reading easier, but still not exactly simple.

A sizzle was heard coming from the pot. _I hope I didn't screw up dinner too much. Serah will be not too pleased if I did._ Her thoughts then wandered back to the woman, almost where her thoughts had left off. This time it was the lady's hips as they swayed back and forth were the focus of her thoughts. Her bright blue eyes were slowly hidden behind her eyelids.

* * *

><p>AN:<p>

Jan. 15, 2012  
>Hey, guys! Wow! Thanks for all the reviews, favorites, and alerts that you guys gave me for the first chapter! It means a lot and helps to keep me motivated (see a couple paragraphs below).<p>

I wrote most of this chapter about a week ago, but then school started again and I was usually too tired at night to work on it until now. I made a goal that I'd get it done by today – technically I still have like 22 hours to get it up, but I don't want to wait and delay any longer. I just finished writing it, but feel too tired to proofread right now – I'll do it in the morning... later in the morning. So I'm sorry if you're reading it before then and there happens to be a lot of mistakes (which I honestly doubt, but it could happen). Feel free to/please point them out.

I don't want to leave another multichapter fic hanging. Being honest, I don't have enough inner motivation to keep it going, I need help from you guys. Reviews, favs, and alerts always help. But I also came up with an idea; you scratch my back, I scratch yours. I've recently finished reading The Inheritance Cycle (Eragon, Eldest, Brisingr, and Inheritance) and went to see if there was any Arya femslash fanfics... there's not many :( which I'm very sad about. So, if any of you guys write a decent Arya femslash fic (I think I'd prefer Arya x Nasuada), give me a PM. I'll then update this story within a week/week and a half. Considering that I've gone months (a year) w/o updating a story, this should greatly hurry the story along. Give it a thought... please! I'm pretty sure that if I had realized, and accepting, my 'strange' attraction to her character when I first read Eragon then I would have probably realized I was gay a lot earlier, haha.

Sorry for the long AN.


	3. Chapter 3

Practice Makes Perfect

Chapter 3

Lightning woke with a start. Her breathing shallow and fast, and her heart pounding.

She hadn't even realized she had fallen asleep; her mind had drifted off so naturally. Her blue eyes started to focus as she realized what had woken her up. It was the alarm she had set for the beef stroganoff. Lightning quickly got up from the couch, noticing that her genetics book had fallen on the floor while she had been asleep. It lay with its covers up and some of the pages bent badly against the carpet floor. She picked it up, tried to smooth out the creases of some of the pages, and set it on the coffee table nearby before heading back into the kitchen.

She had set the timer a bit early so she could check on the sauce before she thought it might be done. Steam rose up out of the pot as Lightning took off the lid. She grabbed a nearby spoon and stirred it a little bit. Having never made or eaten this food before, Lightning wasn't sure what it was supposed to look like. _It smells okay,_ she thought and shrugged. This would make her have to wait until later to find out if she screwed it up beyond repair by adding too much beef broth and water to it. The pot lid was quickly put back on. It still had ten or so minutes to cook.

Another pot was retrieved from the cabinet and quickly filled with water as she prepared to cook noodles in it.

The recipe was read again, this time the original _and_ the notes at the bottom, before she dared to continue. She grabbed the sour cream, measured it, and then put it in a bowl, where she then mixed in a couple ingredients into it as the comments had said.

By the time she had set the counter with plates and everything else she needed for dinner, the mixture in the pot had (_probably_) cooked enough, and the boiling pot of water was ready for noodles to be added. The beef stroganoff looked a bit weird, but since she had nothing to compare it to and she still wasn't done adding ingredients to it, she decided to wait and see if she had ruined it or not.

Fifteen minutes later Lightning heard a key unlocking the front door of their apartment. And a few seconds later her little sister came into the room with a light blue backpack slung over one shoulder. She was a few inches shorter than Lightning, had the same color of eyes, but slightly pinker hair. Not to mention that she usually had about three fourths of her hair in a ponytail on the side of her head.

"Hey! How was class?" asked Lightning with a small smile.

Serah grumbled for a second before saying, "It was okay." She put her backpack on the couch that Lightning had previously been sleeping on. "How is dinner coming?" A smile came to her face as she walked over to the pot to see how it was looking. Steam came up as she lifted up its lid. She seemed pleased with the smell, but her eyes kind of squinted at the look of it. Serah looked up questioningly to Lightning.

"It's not quite done yet," Lightning responded. If it didn't taste good _then_ she would tell Serah that she did something wrong. "Now go sit down at the counter so I can finish it up," she said while shewing her sister away with her hands like a mother hen.

Serah giggled but complied. It wasn't very often that Lightning acted so familiarly, and it had taken many years in their sisterly relationship for Lightning to finally act as such. She moved around to the other side of the counter where the couple of tall chairs were while Lightning added in the sour cream mix.

The younger sister waited patiently while Lightning finished up. It only took a couple of minutes, which they were both thankful for because they were both very hungry. Lightning looked around and made sure everything was ready, her sister could see her eyes flutter across the area as she mentally checked off everything. She finally decided that everything was ready and joined her sister at the other side of the table.

"By grace of divine Etro," they both said at the same time with their heads bowed and their hands together. Then the two of them started to dish out the food. Lightning had already pulled out some salad and dressing from the refrigerator while she was finishing her wait for Serah.

Lightning could tell that Serah was happier with the way that the beef strogganof was looking now that she was putting it on top of her noodles.

The beginning of their dinner was rather quiet. Usually Serah would be talking Lightning's ear off by now. Lightning wondered what might have happened to subdue her sister so much.

Their plates were now full with food as Serah and Lightning took their first bites of the main dish.

"I... expected it to taste a bit different than this," Serah said.

Lightning thought that it didn't taste too bad, but it probably would have tasted a lot better if she hadn't of added both the beef broth and the water.

"Do you not like it, though?" Lightning; always straight to the point. She asked the question neutrally, not like someone that would start crying and run to their bedroom if the answer was negative.

"It's..." Serah thought for the correct word for a second as she looked down at her plate, "okay." The older sister knew that "okay" was not a positive response from her sister, who usually used more colorful words when she liked something.

"Well," Lightning sighed and blue eyes looked up at her, "I did accidentally double one of the ingredients... in a way. If you don't like it we could order in some pizza or Chinese food, they're both nearby." She had already thought of these options in case the dinner didn't turn out well.

"No, it's okay. It's not bad or anything," Serah said and gave a big smile to her sister.

"Are you sure?"

"Yeah, it's fine."

"_Fine" another word that Serah didn't use when she honestly liked something._

"Are you su-"

"Yes! I'm sure," Serah said loudly, but laughed at the same time. She had already taken a couple more bites of it and seemed to be swallowing it just fine. _Well, that's a plus, _Lightning thought, _at least she's not throwing it back up._

"So, how come class was just 'okay' today?"

"Meh," was all the response that Lightning got as Serah shrugged while taking another bite of the pasta. The older sister rested her arm on the counter as she swiveled around to look at her sister more directly. Sometimes she could get more out of her sister with an intense look than with a probing question. She new it wouldn't be too long before her sister cracked. Serah took a quick look up at her before placing her gaze back down on her food. Lightning smiled a little as she new an answer was about to come. "It's just this asshole in my English class."

Lightning waited for her sister to continue, but it didn't happen. She was slightly shocked that Serah said "asshole," such words weren't heard from her very often. "Why was he an asshole?"

"Ugh," Serah let out the noise with frustration. "Well, it wasn't really just one person. The professor started talking about debates and ethics and argumentative essays. About how so many girls are being sold as sex slaves in Burmecia, because women usually aren't worth much any other way. So, I guess, there aren't as many girls being born compared to boys because of the genetic tests and ultrasounds that can be done to the fetus now. Supposedly, the doctor telling the parents what sex their child is is against the law, but they still do it anyways by having those parents that are going to give birth to a boy, or '_m_ale,' come on _M_onday for their check-up results, and those that are going to give birth to a _f_emale come on _F_riday for their results." Serah took a big breath and a bite of food. During this short intermission Lightning could see how upset Serah was about this. Her sister looked to be taking out some of her anger on the food that she had in her mouth. "So, this then allows the parents that would have a girl to then have an abortion, because the parents would much rather have a child that's able to make more money.

"The teacher then said there's been shown to be a correlation between the drop of female births and the rise of girls being sold as sex slaves, or something. Oh, and apparently it's getting hard for men to find a wife," she said exasperated and with a roll of her eyes. There was another short break as she took another bite of food. Lightning just sat quietly waiting for her to continue, occasionally nodding or giving noises of agreement when appropriate while slowly eating her meal. "It was then kind of opened up for a bit of discussion between the students and Dr. Dysley, the professor.

"Then after a little bit, I don't know, I just thought of something. Dysley said that the increase in abortions of female fetuses was caused because of the increase in sex slavery, or something. But that just doesn't make any sense to me. It seems to me that both are caused because women aren't able to make an equivalent wage of men, so I said as much." Another food break was taken. Her grip on her fork and her scowl increasing as she continued. "If women had equal pay for equal work then there wouldn't be as much incentive to sell girls as sex slaves or to abort females, 'cause then they would have the same chance as men to make as much money. I mean, there's obviously some cultural issues going on here as well.

"Yeah, so I said all that, and there seemed to be some agreement with at least some of it, but then there were all these stupid comparisons being made with communism and socialism. Like, they should just hand out money to women or something, like they couldn't actually work for it so it would just have to be given to them. And there was also some people laughing. I don't even know where all those stupid comments came from... well, I think the communism one came from the teacher and then some others came from some guys in the class. And they were talking so quickly and over each other that it was hard to tell what was going on and then point out how stupid it was that they were sounding!"

Serah was finally done with her rant. It had become more and more animated as she got closer to the finish. Lightning had listened intently the whole time. While she didn't enjoy her sister being so frustrated about something, she couldn't help but smile a little inwardly as she saw her sister change from internally seething at the beginning of monologue to looking as if she wanted to hit something – which she probably wouldn't do. Her sister really does care deeply about other people. While Lightning thought something was up with her sister to have her replying with such terse answers, she didn't think that it was going to be something that made Serah so angry when she'd speak about it.

"I can see how that'd be very aggravating. They were definitely acting like assholes," Lightning agreed.

"Yeah, it was just so very frustrating!"

"Well, just try to ignore them and maybe they'll come to realize how stupid they were acting."

"No," Serah drew out with a sigh, "they probably won't. They just seem like those type of people that will never realize how stupid, mean, rude, and idiotic they are."

Lightning grunted in agreement. _I definitely know some people like that._

"There will always be people like that out there. It's a good lesson to learn how to not let them get to you too much. Stupidity shouldn't be able to cause so much unhappiness. But I know that's easier said than done." _Something I definitely need to work on too._

"Yeah, I know." It looked like some of the wind had been taken out of Serah's sails, but also like she had just gotten something burdensome off of her shoulders. "So, how was your day?" she asked while continuing to eat.

"It was good."

It was a bit of an unusual answer, Lightning knew that Serah would recognize it as such, but it was the first thing that came out of her mouth and she couldn't stop it. It was a short reply, which was typical, but it didn't use "okay" or "fine," which made it uncommon for Lightning. "Fine," "okay," and "alright" were words used for a typical day for Lightning and a bad day for Serah – they both knew that.

"Good?" Serah questioned, hoping for more.

"Yeah."

The younger sister chuckled a little bit, knowing that this line of questioning was probably at an end. Lightning sensed this and elaborated slightly.

"Yeah, it was good. School was fine, practice was fine, gym was good..." And the older sister left it hanging a little bit. One of Serah's eyebrows lifted slightly and the repeated use of "good."

_Dammit! Why didn't I just use "fine" again?_

Not that it was a big deal or anything. It was just that sometimes Serah gets a little over zealous with questions... and that can be annoying.

Serah turned towards her and scrutinized her older sister.

"That's not going to work on me, Serah."

"Fine."

Lightning rolled her eyes. _Damn these four letter words._

The fork in Serah's hand speared a couple pieces of pasta and a piece of beef. She chewed the food before asking another question.

"So you put in double of something?"

Lightning wasn't thrown off by the change in subject. "Sort of. I put in both water and beef broth."

"Oh?" The little sister slightly questioned.

"Yeah, it was kind of confusing because of the changes to the recipe that were made. I just got distracted and forgot that I had already put in the other equivalent ingredient."

Serah raised another eyebrow. "You got distracted? By what?" she tried to ask in a non-judgmental way – knowing that this could give her likelier probability of being answered. Not that it always worked.

Lightning thought back onto what she had been thinking about that had caused the distraction... whom she had been thinking about. _Ha ha ha. Yeah, right._ There was no way she was going to answer that question 100% honestly.

"Oh, nothing." She shrugged her shoulders to try and make it seem like it was actually nothing. But "oh, nothing," almost always means something. "It was just something random." She hoped that answering more fully would stop Serah's questioning gaze.

"Something random?"

_Will this ever stop?_

"Yeah," was the definitive reply, signaling that it was all she was going to say about it.

She could tell that her little sister was not believing her, and also that she was annoyed with how little Lightning was talking. _I know you're thinking, "You're such a difficult sister." _It wasn't a difficult guess. Lightning heard it often.

"Okay," Serah played along, drawing out the word as she rolled her eyes. Not that her sister could see Serah's reaction since the elder was already finished eating and got up and started cleaning – including putting the leftovers into tupperware so they could have some another day, perhaps for lunch. Serah soon finished eating and helped her sister with the last couple of things in a relatively comfortable silence.

"I'm going to watch some Nautilus Shore and do some homework. Wanna join me?" Serah asked despite already knowing the answer.

"No, it's okay. I have to deal with enough idiots in real life, I don't need to watch any on TV. And I have a lot of genetics reading I need to get done, so I'll just study in my room and head to bed."

"Alright, have a good night," the little sister said with a smile. It was going to end up being a typical night; Serah in the living room doing homework, often while half-watching TV, while Lightning was in her bedroom, by herself, working on her school work.

"You too," _have a good night._ Lightning returned the smile before grabbing her genetics textbook and backpack and walking down the short hallway to her bedroom. She shut the door lightly, trying to block as much noise as possible even though she knew Serah wouldn't have the TV on too loudly.

She repositioned a couple of pillows against the wall at the top of the bed before settling into them. Her textbook was forgotten for a minute as she looked around at her rather barren room. The walls were a creamy white. There was a small set of drawers to the right side of the bed – a lamp, a framed family picture, alarm clock, and some other small things sitting upon it. A larger chest of drawers were off to the left – a few more framed pictures and nicknacks on top. The closet was several feet beyond the drawer chest, and to the right was the door to the hallway, which Lightning could currently see straight on from her position. _Yep, that's about it,_ she thought as her eyes were done raking across her room.

Sighing, she took her textbook in her lap and opened it back to the, now bent, page she was reading before her impromptu nap. She looked at the page with a blank stare, her mind somewhere else.

Lightning wondered a little bit more about the woman at the gym (_...Fang_). _Once again she's distracting me. First when trying to study earlier, and then when trying to make dinner. _

_This does not bode well, _she thought as her eyebrows lowered, her gaze still pointed towards the book in her lap, not that she noticed it.

The pink-blonde haired woman then started to question why she didn't just tell Serah about Fang. _I'll tell her later... if anything progresses with her. ..."Progresses"? _She let out an agonized groan as she realized she actually seems to want something to happen with the brunette.

She didn't have too much of a problem telling Serah. _Other than never having told Serah about one of her (true) interests before, or preferring peace and quiet – _knowing that Serah will probably be boisterous when being told this piece of information. But, otherwise, it should be fine. Lightning knew that her little sister would be excited about this. Thinking about her sister's reaction made her both smile and cringe.

It has been over a year since Lightning came out to Serah, the first person that she told. It was one of the hardest things that the big sister had ever done – the possibility of losing the closest person to her was a fear that weighed heavily on her mind for many years previously. But she should have had more faith in her sister. Serah took a while getting adjusted to the new information about her sister, but she was happy as long as her sister was happy, and would love her no matter what. And in the last several months she has been very supportive – well, as supportive as Lightning would let her be.

Her mind finally done wandering for a bit, Lightning focused once again on the book before her.

* * *

><p>A.N.<p>

Sorry it's taken me several months to [strikethrough] get back to writing [/strikethrough] finish this chapter (but, hey, I now have my bachelors degree!). Sorry it's not particularly long (I originally planned on having it with chapter 2, but I did add some extra stuff because it seemed rather short). Sorry there's not really any FLight in it. But I hope it helps readers look into the Farron sister relationship and the world in this AU. Hopefully there won't be as big a gap before the next chapter.

Please review! And THANK YOU to those of you who have reviewed, favorited, followed, etc.! It helped my motivation and made it so I couldn't forget this story (even if I wanted to, which I didn't).

p.s. Serah's scene of frustration about her class did actually happen in one of mine – with some slight changes. The actual country that was talked about was India, for those of you wondering.

Sept. 16, 2012


	4. Chapter 4

Practice Makes Perfect

Chapter 4

_How fucking pitiful._

It has been a couple of weeks and Fang still hasn't spoken with the taciturn, pink-haired lady. She hasn't even tried. She's purposefully avoided eye contact and looking her way most of the time.

_Like I said; pitiful, _Fang thought as she entered the gym. _But this time I came with my secret weapon... as long as she can focus long enough._

"Hey, Fang!"

"Hey, Snow."

"Who's your friend?" The large man asked, referring to the shorter person walking in with her.

"This is Vanille," she replied with a smile, then turned to the orange-haired woman beside her as she continued, "Vanille, this is Snow."

"Hi, Snow. I've heard a lot about you."

"I hope it's all been good," he said with a big grin.

"Well, we all can't always get what we want," Vanille said with a laugh.

Snow's grin faded as he turned to Fang with a not-so-nice questioning look.

"She's kidding! Geez, Vanille," the brunette said as she started pushing her honorary sister towards the locker room door. "Talk to you later, Snow!" The large guy grumbled a little, but probably soon to forget what happened.

The two of them walked into the changing room, Fang directing Vanille to her usual changing spot. It was pretty empty during this time of day, and she knew the subject of their discussion wouldn't be walking in any time soon, if at all. So Fang figured it was a pretty safe place to talk.

"So," Vanille began, "what's the game plan?"

"Plan?" she joked as Vanille gave her a dirty look. "Alright, alright, alright... Plan..." she said, now trying to think of one. Fang had tried to come up with one earlier, but it never really got fully developed. Vanille was still patient, but that wouldn't last for long. "Um, I don't know, how about you just watch her and pick up any information you can on her." There was a bit of an up-tick in her voice at the end, almost making it a question.

"Sounds like a plan!" said with Vanille's usual exuberance, which was a bit unexpected. "Not a very good one, but a plan nonetheless."

They started changing into their workout clothes, only a few other women passing through while they were in there.

Vanille paused just before going into the gym area. "So, what am I supposed to do?"

"We just went over this!"

"Yeah, I know. But what am I supposed to do?" Vanille looked up at her questioningly, but Fang still wasn't getting it. "Like, I assume you don't want me just following her around and watching her the whole time... do you?"

"Ohh. Uh, no." The brunette paused as she thought for a second. "Just do some exercises and pretend you're just a normal gym user." _Duh._

"Like what exercises?"

Fang sighed, she had briefly forgotten that Vanille wasn't really a working out type of person. "I'll show you when we get out there. Just do around twenty reps at low weight three or so times and then switch machines or exercises."

"Okay. Just show me how to do stuff that doesn't make me sweat too much."

"Okay," Fang promised with an eye roll.

No matter how much Fang had tried in the past, Vanille just wasn't going to ever become her workout buddy. It's not like Vanille was exactly a prissy girl, she just had her own ways of staying in shape... _which tended to usually be doing nothing and being thankful for good genes. I don't understand how Van can think that sweating is so gross... unless it's happening in certain situations. _Fang shook her head gently. _Sometimes she tells me way too much information._

They entered into the exercise area. The usual hum of equipment, quiet grunts of the exercisers, sound of one of the TVs from the treadmill area, and some sparse talking between some of the patrons filled their ears. Fang gave the large room a quick once over and then a twice over, looking for her person of interest. There was at least several people in each area. She didn't see the pinkette, which didn't surprise her. Fang had noticed that the woman usually came in later on some days – Tuesday being one of those days.

Fang first took Vanille over to the free weight section. She showed the younger how to do some curls, squats, lunges and other such things, but she soon began to get frustrated when Vanille's short attention span kicked in.

"Yo! Pay attention!"

Vanille's head whipped back to Fang. "What? It's not like I care about how to do this. I can just pretend to be doing stuff. And now I don't wonder why you come here so much; there's such good eye-candy!" she said as her eyes flickered back to a kid with white-gray hair – _looks like a bad dye job to me; his roots are so much darker –_ who was currently on a stair stepper machine.

"Van, he looks like he's still in high school, for Hecatoncheir's sake."

Despite Fang's obvious disapproval, Vanille just shrugged her shoulders before turning back to Fang. "Maybe he just looks super young."

Fang decided to let it drop... _as long as Van starts paying more attention._

"Okay, well, we're pretty much done here anyway. Let's go over to some of the machines." Vanille immediately started walking over to the treadmills and stair steppers. "Not _those_ machines," Fang added before directing Vanille over to the area where she had tried to talk to the pinkette a couple of weeks ago, but instead ended up talking to Sazh.

This time Vanille payed a bit more attention to what Fang was doing and saying. The brunette also had her try out the exercises herself before she was satisfied that Vanille wouldn't hurt herself.

"Alright, I think you know enough exercises now. And I figure you know how to work a treadmill if you want to." Vanille nodded. Fang did another sweep of the large room (something she has done several times since entering it) looking for the woman with pink hair. "She still isn't here," Fang looked at the clock and added, "but probably will be soon. I'm gonna run for a while. How 'bout you go to the free weights first?"

"Sure."

"Remember: just watch and use your amazing gaydar."

"Got it, captain! Ready and reporting for duty!" Vanille said with a military salute.

"Then off with ya, smartass," she said before her sister could giggle her way over to the free weights.

Fang walked over to the treadmills, finding that down the hallway to the lobby was a swatch of pink walking towards her... well, in the general direction of the exercise equipment. She didn't look down the pathway long because she was afraid she'd soon trip over a machine or towel or whatever else may be laying around. The brunette found a treadmill quickly while a small smile graced her mouth.

Vanille had just picked up a couple of light weights when Fang had started lightly running and trying to catch her eye. The younger finally looked towards her sister. Fang lifted up her left eyebrow and nodded towards the woman that happened to slip into Vanille's area without the shorter girl realizing.

The response was two raised eyebrows from Vanille as the woman's eyes flickered between the taciturn woman off to the side of her and Fang, her head slightly tilted as she asked the silent question of whether this was indeed the correct woman. Fang gave her a nod.

The small weight in Vanille's right hand was added to the left hand – the small circumference of the middle of the weights making them easily held in one hand when slightly turned – so she could give Fang a thumbs up as she mouthed, "hot," at least, that's how Fang interpreted it. The older sister rolled her eyes, even though she completely agreed, as Vanille gave her a cheeky grin.

* * *

><p><em>So <em>this_ is who has gotten Fang off her game. _

It was no surprise to Vanille why Fang would be so intrigued by this woman. She was having a hard time herself not staring at the pinkette, and finally remembered that she should at least pretend to be exercising.

She could also see why Fang was finding it hard to talk to the woman. It was like her sister had said: the woman listened to music, was focused on exercising, and seemed really good at giving people a death-glare, which seemed to make it so people gave her distance. Vanille started to wonder why Fang was wanting to go out with someone that seemed to be so distant with people.

_Maybe because it's a challenge?.. _she didn't know.

Surprisingly, to Vanille, trying to figure out if the woman was gay was a harder task than she thought it would be. _Sure, she has an asymmetrical haircut (one point gay), but everything she's wearing would be most people's normal workout clothes. _After another couple minutes of observation, Vanille noticed a large watch on the blue-eyed woman's left wrist. _Another gay point, _she thought with a small smile. But there wasn't much else to notice – _most women would wear shorts and a tank-top to exercise in_ – other than the intangible vibe she got from her that just screamed _gay._

After about fifteen minutes of covert observation, Vanille decided that she needed a change of exercise. There probably wasn't much more that she could glean from just watching her longer anyway. Vanille walked back over to the rack of free weights, putting the ones that she had grabbed back down into their area – trying to keep to the pattern of lightest to heaviest weights. As she started turning back around she heard someone clearing their throat nearby.

"You need to wipe those weights down before you just leave them there."

Vanille was surprised when she realized that it was the pink-haired woman speaking to her, putting her own (heavier) weights down before pulling out one side of her headphones from her ear.

"Oh, um..." She wasn't sure what to say, and didn't quite know what the woman was talking about.

"It's gym policy," the woman said, pointing to a piece of paper that was taped to the wall several yards away.

Turning to try and read the paper, Vanille felt rather intimidated by the woman, which was a rather unusual feeling for her. Most people, once realizing the girl's bubbly personality, would in turn relax and not be so stern, or her personality would act as a shield from such abrasive behavior and she would hardly be effected by it. This effect had her thrown off and not able to focus. She looked back to the woman and innocently raised one eyebrow in confusion.

Blue eyes and the forehead above them seemed to relax slightly. "There's some little towels in that bucket over there." She pointed to the near corner of the room. "And there's a spray bottle at each end of the weight racks. You just need to spray the weights you used with the disinfectant and wipe them down – along with anything else that you might touch or get sweat on."

"Oh, right. Sorry." There was a bit of a pause. "I... this is the first time I've been here." The woman just nodded slightly and shrugged her shoulders a bit, ready to go back to her workout.

_Fang is so going to owe me._ Vanille decided to take a step towards the retreating woman.

"Um, what's your name?" she asked, trying to not take a large gulp at the end of the question.

The woman turned slightly back around to Vanille with an appraising look on her face, her right arm pausing on it's way up to return the head phone to her one ear, mulling over whether she should answer this simple question or not.

"It's Lightning." Her voice rather deep – _another point for gay._

Vanille didn't get a chance to respond before Lightning walked away towards the machines that Fang had taught her how to use.

Not wanting to go back into an area where Lightning was, Vanille decided she'd go over and see a very sweaty Fang. As she started her way towards the brunette she was greeted with an odd look. _Seems like the little conversation didn't go unnoticed. _She stepped onto one of the motionless treadmills next to her older sister, feeling the intense gaze on her but not meeting it.

"So..? What was that?" Fang asked, trying to be a little quiet so not everyone near them could hear.

"She's kind of a bitch," Vanille replied rather blankly, still not quite sure how to interpret the interaction with the pinkette.

"What? You don't even know her." Fang's voice was raised a little bit.

"Yeah, maybe not, but I've talked to her and that's more than you've done."

"Maybe she's just having a bad day."

"Eh," Vanille hemmed and hawed, not believing that that could be the only possible explanation.

Fang, once again, looked in front of her and continued running, seemingly to think for a little bit.

"Well, what do you think? What team does she play on?" Fang's voice volume lowered once again.

"Hmmmm," Vanille dragged it out longer than necessary, pretending to think. "I think she most likely likes women. But it would be really good to see her in a different setting – it's too hard to tell when people are just working out." Fang's smile grew steadily. "Although, I'm not sure why you like her; she doesn't seem all that nice.

Fang grunted before adding a, "We'll see."

"Her name is Lightning."

"You got her name?" Fang was shocked.

"Yeah. It didn't really seem like she wanted to give it to me, but she did."

"Hmm, 'Lightning,'" the brunette said, trying out the name on her tongue.

"Yeah, kinda weird."

"Oh-oh! Let's not start this again."

"What? At least my name originates from something that gives flavor to people's lives; _not_ something that could injure or kill someone." Fang rolled her eyes. Vanille knew that she could always win this argument. It also didn't help the brunette that she was running and out of breath.

Fang just continued running, pressing some buttons on the machine so she could run faster.

"How much longer are you gonna work out?"

Green eyes looked at the informative red numbers on the treadmill and then up at the clock near one of the TVs.

"A minimum of 15 minutes and a max of 30."

Vanille knew that Fang was probably cutting her workout time short so she wouldn't have to be here longer than necessary, and probably be bored while waiting. Their mission had been accomplished, so there wasn't much reason for her to still be here. But Vanille took a look around and noticed that the white-haired boy was, amazingly, still working out, but now on a treadmill. _Maybe a quick jog wouldn't be so bad. _She hoped that the 2nd meeting of a stranger wouldn't go as badly as the first.

"Okay, I'm gonna go over there for a bit," she said pointing one row of treadmills forward and several to the left.

"'Kay. I'll come get you when I'm done."

* * *

><p>Before Lightning knew it Fang had already left the gym. She had noticed that the orange-haired girl that she talked with – <em>yelled at<em> – earlier seemed to know the brunette. It didn't seem to be like the usual random acquaintances that Fang usually made around the gym.

Lightning just shrugged and tried not to think about it. She wasn't in the mood to think about it.

After another half an hour of working out she decided to call it quits. Her body had had enough for the day. She wiped down the machine and picked up her belongings.

As she made her way down the hallway to the lobby she recognized her sister talking to – _the lump-of-a-man –_ Snow at the front desk. A low, quiet growl emanated from her throat.

Serah noticed her sister coming down the hallway and halted her conversation with Snow.

"Come on, Serah, let's go home." Lightning didn't pause on her way out the door. _This really isn't the day for this to be happening._

"Okay," came Serah's reply, but she didn't leave without finishing her conversation with the towheaded man. "See ya later, Snow!"

"Yeah! See ya! Come around any time."

Lightning could tell just by the sound of their voices that both of them were grinning at each other. Her jaw clenched.

The two sisters walked out the front door of Gym Nora and turned their way towards their apartment. Both of them pulled their jackets a little bit closer around them to help against the February breeze. The sun hadn't quite gone all the way down, but it was pretty close, causing the air to get cold quickly. The buildings nearby, usually at least a few stories tall, made it so they could only see the upward dimming blue sky.

"I wasn't expecting to see you in the gym." The silence was finally broken, and Lightning decided to take the less aggressive approach to the question that had been bugging her since she had seen Serah talking to Snow.

"I was thinking I'd have a look at one of the places you spend so much time at... And, I've been thinking about maybe getting a membership. It would be nice to maybe start working out."

Lightning could tell that her sister was hesitant in answering her. She could also tell that her sister could feel her bad mood radiating off of her and it was affecting the younger sister even though she struggled against it.

"When are you going to take the time to come down here? Not to mention with what money..."

"I figured I could maybe work a few more hours a week at Magical Moments. And I'm sure I could find some time a few days a week... I could come in the mornings if I had to."

Lightning was confused as to where this idea came from. She wasn't sure if she liked it. Lightning loved her sister and was extremely protective of her, but she enjoyed having a place where she could just tune out the whole world and do her own thing, work out some of her daily frustrations. She was afraid that having her sister exercise with her would ruin that. The older sister knew that she was being selfish about this, but the gym was her own sanctuary.

Serah could sense her sister's hesitancy.

"I mean, I don't have it all figured out. Just thought maybe I'd come down and take a look at it; see if it would maybe be something I'd like to do. ...Sometimes I just feel so lazy sitting or standing around all the time."

"So what did you think of it?" She tried to keep her voice flat.

"It seemed nice. There was a lot of machines I don't know how to use, but I'm sure I could figure them out. I don't know, what do you think I should do?"

A short moment was taken for her to organize an answer. "Either way," Lightning shrugged. "It doesn't really matter to me. I just don't want you to waste your money when it you might not take the time to really get the most out of the membership."

"Yeah, I understand that. I'll think about it some more. And it would only be a month membership to maybe test it out a little bit first."

"Okay."

The two of them fell into a short silence. Lightning looked up at the darkening sky. Within the last few minutes the sky had blackened significantly.

"How was your day?" Serah asked.

Lightning grunted.

"That good, huh?" the little sister asked and then playfully bumped her shoulder into Lightning's.

"Yeah. It was one of those days that just sucked because of little things that just kept adding up."

Serah hummed in understanding as they had made their way to the front of their apartment building.

* * *

><p>AN:<p>

Once again, sorry it's taken me so long to update. But, this time it only took like 3 months... that's improvement, right? My goal is to add a new chapter each month – hopefully that's reasonable enough for me to actually get it done. And I'll try to maybe get another chapter up during the holidays.

_**Important: **_I'm strongly considering changing the plot of this story from where I had originally thought it might be going. Because of that I would need to make some slight changes to chapter 1 (I think that's all), so there wouldn't be that much of a difference w/ what I've written so far. I'll let you know when I change it – probably when I upload chapter 5. But, because of this change it won't be the 'simple' romance story that I was originally planning, but it will hopefully be much better than it would have been. So the summary will also probably change.

Thank you for all the favorites, follows, and reviews (and PMs)! They mean a lot and really help my motivation!

I'm also trying to keep my profile updated w/ anything I might be working on.

Sorry if this seemed like a depressing way to end the chapter. Didn't really have anything else to say. The next chapter will pick things up a bit, I promise.

December 23rd, 2012.


	5. Chapter 5

(*Chapter 1 has now been changed a bit*)

Practice Makes Perfect

Chapter 5

"Come on, Fang! I don't want to be late!" Vanille yelled from inside the front door.

"Coming, coming!"

Fang came from the hallway seconds later. She was wearing jeans, a v-neck shirt, and a nice black jacket. "Are you sure you want to go?" she asked as she grabbed her shoes to put them on near the door.

"Yes, I'm sure! Let's go."

"I'm not sure why you're so excited; you don't even know if Hope is going to be there."

"But there's a chance... there's _hope_," the orange-haired girl grinned at her pun.

Fang rolled her eyes as she locked their apartment door before being dragged down the building's hallway by her sister.

"Besides," Vanille continued, "maybe _Lightning _will be there," dragging out the name as she pulled the following brunette down the stairs.

"I highly doubt that."

* * *

><p>It was obvious who was excited and who wasn't. Serah was nearly skipping down the street to reach the house that was now only half a block away. Lightning would have been dragging her feet if she wasn't afraid that something would happen to Serah if the distance became too great, but in her head she was dragging her feet extremely slow... not that that actually did anything.<p>

Lightning sighed loudly.

"Come on, Lightning!"

Lightning groaned.

"It will be fun, I promise," Serah tried to act reassuring with a large grin on her face, walking backwards in order to face Lightning full on.

"You owe me for this."

"How? I'm not forcing you to come."

"No, but I'm not going to let you go to some strange guy's house party without there being someone there that I know can protect you." _And I'm the only one I know that can protect you. _"And if I didn't let you go then I wouldn't hear the end of it. But you still definitely owe me," she said with a small smirk.

"He's not 'strange'."

"You don't know him; who knows what he could be in to."

"You've seen him like every day for the last six months, don't you know him a little?"

"Nope. I could just tell he'd annoy the Pulse out of me."

Serah just rolled her eyes and turned back around. Lightning knew she was being difficult, she usually did, but that didn't change her behavior, especially when she knew she might be saving herself and her sister from something frustrating or detrimental in the future. She also knew that Serah found that there was no reason to argue when her older sister got like this.

They made it to the front of the house. Lightning was nervous. She wasn't much of an extrovert, so going to a – possibly large – party where she didn't really know anyone wasn't something she really looked forward to. She didn't like people much and she found that often people didn't like her much in return, or maybe they just found her standoffish and didn't like it.

Lightning tried to clear her thoughts as Serah pressed the doorbell.

It took a few seconds – _more like fifteen_ – until someone opened the door. Lightning recognized her as another Gym Nora employee, but she had never talked to her before. Medium length brown hair, tone body, and usually didn't dress quite appropriate enough, for Lightning's liking, for work.

"Hey!" she exclaimed while looking at Lightning with a look of recognition before turning to Serah – the one that seemed more happy to be arriving at a party, no doubt. "Come on in, come on in! Looking for anyone in particular?" the brunette asked. Lightning could tell that she'd probably had a drink or two already.

"Yeah... Snow?" Serah turned it into a question.

"Of course... The last time I saw him he was in the kitchen. I'll lead the way," she backed away from the entrance of the house and turned around once the sisters had entered the home and shut the door.

Serah was the first to follow and Lightning picked up the end of the very short train. There was a small entrance way that soon gave way to a front room, which was currently occupied by eight or so college students – _guessing from the Oerba University hoodies and shirts – _drinking, listening to the blasting music, and talking loudly to each other_. _Even though the pinkette goes to the same school she did not feel any sort of connection with them whatsoever.

The living room soon lead to the kitchen. There was a central bar for sitting and eating, across from which was a counter that Snow was currently at. His back was towards them as he mixed some drinks. There were a few people sitting on stools and standing around, including another gargantuan man, but this one has orange and red hair instead of Snow's light blond hair. It was hard to miss him and apparently hard not to remember him since he was another person that Lightning can remember seeing at the gym.

"Snow, a couple of your friends are here," the brunette was close to yelling in order to be heard over the talking and music.

_It's a wonder that they ever heard the doorbell at all, _Lightning thought.

The large man turned around, a bottle of alcohol still in his hand, "Oh, hey! You made it!" Lightning noticed that he was mostly looking at Serah, which didn't surprise her.

"Yeah..." Serah meekly nodded with her answer.

"Good, I'm glad." Lightning could tell that he was genuinely happy when he smiled. "Hey, could you just give me a minute while I finish up these drinks?"

"Yeah, that's fine."

Lightning was feeling slightly bored and uncomfortable so she took to looking back into the living room to see if there was anyone else that happened to recognize from the gym. Other than the brunette Gym Nora employee, who had reentered the living room and was now mostly talking with a girl and a guy, there wasn't anyone that she really recognized.

"Here you go, Fang!" Snow boomed as he handed a drink to a person sitting on a stool. It was a couple seats behind the orange-red haired big man so Lightning couldn't get a clear view. "And Vanille!" He handed a drink to the person sitting next to the big man.

Lightning quickly turned her body back towards the kitchen and craned her neck in order to see the people receiving the drinks from Snow. She saw Fang lean forward in order to take a safer sip of the full, wide brimmed glass. Before Fang leaned back again, green eyes met hers. The connection lasted for a second before Fang was back to sitting upright on her stool.

The pinkette was caught so off guard that she hadn't really pulled her gaze away from the spot that Fang's head used to be. Her pulse started to accelerate.

_This is ridiculous._

But no matter what she thought, she wouldn't be able to get her heart rate back down as quickly as she would like. It seemed like it was both an hour and an instant that the orange-haired man started to stand up. "Hey, Snow, it's okay if I take this in the living room, yeah?" he asked as he lifted up his beer.

"Yeah, bro, you know it is. You don't need to ask."

"Well, the last time I did 'Breau yelled at me."

"That's probably 'cuz you were drunk off your ass and trying to dance with a stein in your hand."

"Oh, yeah..." The guy started to chuckle to himself as Snow was already laughing at him. The orange-head started to move into the living room. Lightning's eyes hadn't moved much from when she saw Fang a few seconds before, making it so she's staring almost where Fang is. Luckily she came back from her zoning out soon after, but not quite quickly enough to miss Fang turning in her direction, catching her eye again.

Lightning decided to turn to her sister and see what Serah was up to now. She knew her face was blushing a bit as she noticed Serah getting closer to Snow than she would have liked – asking him about the drinks he just made. He started to show her all the ingredients he used to make it. She noticed Serah turn back to her to check up on her older sister. Lightning knew she was being checked up on, and while she found it kind of annoying and pitiful, she also appreciated it because Serah knew she wasn't good in groups of people.

"Light, wanna have a mojito?" Serah asked, bouncing up on the tips of her toes and then on her heels.

Lightning glanced over to Vanille and Fang for no apparent reason – _okay, maybe the reason was known. _"Um, yeah, sure."

The pinkette decided to take the seat that the large man had just vacated; the seat next to Vanille. But once she sat down she started to feel a bit awkward, not sure how best to start a conversation. Talking was not exactly her forte.

* * *

><p>Fang felt a sudden pinch of her right leg from Vanille. It didn't surprise her, but it wasn't welcome either. When Fang still didn't make a move the orange-haired girl gave her a blunt look. A shrug of her shoulders was the brunette's reply.<p>

_What the fuck am I supposed to say? ...fuck... think!_

_Hmmm..._

Fang's eyes searched upwards, perhaps looking for divine insight or maybe trying to look in her brain, searching for something to talk about. Whichever it was, it didn't work. But before she was quite done searching Vanille broke the silence for her.

"Hey, Lightning! How's it going?"

There was a pause before the pinkette answered, "Good. You?"

"Just dandy!" was Vanille's over-the-top – _probably on purpose –_ reply. "This is Fang, my sister-ish friend. ...not sure if you've met."

"I, uh... yeah, sorta. We've, uh... I've seen her around Gym Nora."

"Hey..." Fang said with a smile and a lift of her hand – a weak wave.

"Hi," Lightning returned with a small smile. "'Sister-ish'?" she asked, looking between Vanille and Fang.

"Ha ha! ...yeah. We've pretty much been like sisters since we met – I think when I was seventeen or so, but Vanille seems to have a better recollection of it than I do."

"That sounds about right..." Vanille said before skipping towards a certain gray-haired boy she just saw through the open kitchen door. "See ya later," she through over her shoulder with a grin.

Fang tried to come up with something to keep the conversation from getting awkward again, but thankfully it was at that moment that Snow reached across the table and set down the mojito right in front of her.

"Here ya go, Light!"

Fang could see the pinkette twitch at the shortening of her name.

"Thank you. But you can call me Lightning." There was a hard glare coming from her, but Fang thought she saw the woman try and soften it a bit with a little smile – _a deadly smile_.

"Sure, yeah, okay..."

Lightning took a sip of her drink, seemingly trying to avoid swallowing any bits of leaves or ice. "It's good. Thank you, again," she says, first looking at Snow and then glancing at her sister, who is beside him.

"No problem. Let me know if you want another." Snow and Serah then continue with their conversation. Fang could tell from their body language that they were both interested in each other – something that seemed to annoy Lightning very much.

"The drink's pretty good, huh?"

"Yeah, it is, actually," she said with a couple of light laughs at the end.

"You don't like him much, do ya?" Fang asked while jerking her head in Snow's direction.

Her short laugh rings out strong, but not hearty. "Yeah, not really... but he's okay, I think." There was a pause before Lightning continued, this time more serious, "How well do you know him? Do I need to be worried?"

It was Fang's turn for a laughed. "He's fine. You definitely don't need to be worried. I don't know him super well, but I doubt he'd do anything to hurt anyone." A pause. "That's your sister, right?" This time jerking her head towards the only other pinkette in the place.

"Yeah, she is. How did you know?" Lightning sounded surprised by the guess, but Fang noticed a quirk of her lips almost into a smirk.

"Haha, I didn't take you to be a smart-ass."

"Hmmm... yeah, well, drinking makes it worse," she said before taking another long sip of her mojito – half of it now gone.

"Good to know."

Fang felt herself start to relax a little bit as the conversation got easier. She also noticed that Lightning stopped looking over at her sister and Snow quite as much.

It wasn't long before Fang's own sister came bounding back into the room, this time with Hope, Lebreau, and a couple of older teenagers that Fang doesn't know. One of the teenagers has blond hair and blue eyes, and the other has blue hair and gold eyes.

"Snow and Serah, wanna come down and play some cards with us?" asks Lebreau. "Vanille says she's never played before."

Fang notices how Vanille is standing next to Hope as she switches from the balls of her feet to her heels – _typical excited Vanille._

Snow looks to Serah to see if she'd like to play. She gives him a nod and a shrug.

"Sure, we'll play."

"Wanna join us, Fang and Lightning?" asks Vanille, now standing next to the two of them.

"No, thanks, I've never been into card games," replies the pinkette.

"Uh, maybe in a few minutes I'll come down and join you," Fang adds after.

Vanille gives the brunette a grin and Fang gives her a smile back... and then Vanille gives her a knowing wink. She already had started walking away – this time to the other door on the other side of the kitchen – making it so Lightning couldn't see the playful tease. Fang gives her sister a slight eye-roll in return.

Lightning has her eyebrows raised in question at Fang's gesture.

"Nothing, it's nothing," Fang tries not to flounder. "I just know that Vanille is very excited to get to know Hope better."

* * *

><p><strong>AN:<strong>

**So very sorry it took me so long to update. Got a full-time job and a mortgage now...blah blah blah. This should have been done months ago. And this chapter was actually planned to be longer, but I'm just going to split it... Hopefully posting something will make me more motivated to continue working. So, also sorry to leave it when Fang and Light are just starting to talk... I just really want to post something, haha.**

Thank you everyone for reading, and especially for the reviews! Love you all – sincerely.

**And if you didn't notice it at the top of this page, I have changed chapter one slightly – pretty much just at the end when Fang and Vanille are talking.**

**Nov 18, 2013**


	6. Chapter 6 Serah

**AN:**

**I'm changing things up a bit.** Obviously I'm not staying as motivated as I should to keep writing. My plan is to upload shorter chapters more frequently to then hopefully keep the motivation going.

**So this chapter might be disappointing to most of you – well, my expected target audience. **I'm sorry for that, but I'm gonna try this out, and that means some of these short chapters might not have POVs from Light or Fang. ...There's a teaser at the end though! :)

...I'm studying for the GRE (pre-graduate school test) now... and I have no steady internet on my computer... so don't expect super frequent posts. Thank you for sticking it through, though!

Practice Make Perfect

Chapter 6

Serah

Serah was having the time of her life. It wasn't very often that she got out with a group of people around her same age. Sure, she had friends, but she had only been to a couple parties before – it was hard to party when you had Light as an older sister.

She loved the life of it: all the talking and sounds of laughter, people getting to know someone for the first time, the smells of food and drink. _ And some smells that I could do with out, _Serah thought as she looked at some of the guys that were beginning to sweat a bit.

The basement was dimly lit, but with enough light to see the cards in your hand just fine. And she could see all the decorations on the walls. A lot of them were traffic signs and posters and pictures of famous people – some of them even looked to be signed. There were a couple of couches around a large TV hanging on a wall. A small "kitchen" was in the corner. It consisted of only a little counter space, a couple of cupboards, a microwave, and a little bit of tile flooring.

Currently, Serah was sitting next to Snow and Lebreau in a looped booth – one of three along one of the longer walls. They had been playing Spoons for the last half hour. She had never played the game before, but she had learned it pretty much comes down to this: if you get four cards of the same number then take a spoon, if you see someone else take a spoon then take a spoon, and don't be the last one to try to take a spoon because then you won't have one and you'll be out for the round. It was a fun game, even though it felt a bit childish.

First they had wanted to play poker, but Gadot and Yuj had complained about not having any money. It also looked like Hope wouldn't have wanted to gamble, and she felt the same – _Light would kill me._ So Lebreau grabbed six spoons from one of the kitchen drawers.

Snow was at one end of the booth, and then it went Serah, Lebreau, Vanille, Hope, Yuj, and then Gadot at the other end. It was a tight fit, but they made it work with the two big guys partially facing out.

"Who's in again?" Snow asked. He was the dealer for this game of the set.

"I am." Lebreau said.

"Me too!" came from Vanille.

"Me," said the boy with the blue hair.

"That's it?" He paused to let someone else chime in if that wasn't all of them. "'Kay, then we need to get rid of another spoon."

Hope grabbed one of the four spoons off of the table. He had been designated Extra Spoon Holder since he had been the first out for this set of games.

Snow started to deal out the cards to the four of them currently playing. It would have been easier if they had played on the floor, since then people could just leave a smaller and smaller circle, but Lebreau didn't want to sit on the floor. And after a couple of games the people that got out stopped getting out of the booth – it was too much of a hassle for everyone. So, Snow ended up skipping about every other person. It also made it harder to give cards to the next person, but everyone stopped complaining about that a couple games ago.

"'Kay, everyone ready?" Snow asked once he had dealt out four cards to each player. Everyone nodded, so he took the top card off the rest of the two-deck pile. A second later he passed it to Lebreau.

Serah took to staring at the decorations on the walls. It was definitely an interesting basement; she hadn't seen many, but she definitely had never seen one like this.

This round ended quickly as Lebreau quietly snuck her hand to grab the first spoon. It had been less than thirty seconds from the time Snow started the game.

Yuj was the first one to notice a spoon had been taken. He did a quick grab for the one closest to him. Vanille notice and was able to just reach the last spoon. Snow passed on one more card to Lebreau before everyone started laughing and he noticed that he'd lost the round.

"Who got the set of four?" He wanted to know.

"Me!" Lebreau laughed afterwards, then did a little victory jig in her confined space.

"Damn it! I tell ya, being the dealer makes ya lose."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Excuses, that's all it is."

"Well, you're dealer next, so have fun with it." Snow pushed all the cards towards her so she could start shuffling.

Serah looped her arm into Snows to help grab his attention. "Where did you guys get all this stuff?" She was surprised when it was Lebreau that answered.

"It's technically my parents'. They used to own a pub, but they decided to close it down – wasn't making enough profit or something. So they let me take all the decorations and put them down here… and a few of the booths. They were bloody difficult to get down here, but we were able to manage. Gadot and Snow are good for heavy lifting," she finished with a laugh.

"Oh. How many people live here?" Serah was a bit confused; she thought it was Snow's place.

"My little brother and I, and Snow. Sometimes Yuj and Gadot may stay the night, but the three of us are the only ones that have bedrooms."

"Yeah, tonight may be one of those nights," the hulking redhead said as he put his empty beer on the floor and grabbed another one from a pack beside him.

"We figured," Snow laughed. "If anyone needs to sleep here, feel free to. We'd rather have your crash the night instead of getting hurt on the way home." It was an offer to everyone at the table, and probably for everyone in the house.

_He's such a nice guy! _Serah squealed internally. Their arms were already looped, but she then moved her hand into his. He turned to her and smiled. It was turning out to be a wonderful Friday night.

July 22, 2014

**(Teaser)**

_I need another drink,_ Light thought as she sat on the couch next to Fang.

She hadn't planned on drinking that much while at the party, but she was finding that she liked the feel of it. _And I'm an adult, Etro damn-it! _


	7. Chapter 6 Lightning

**AN:**

Seriously, I had all but the last ~100 words written for the last 2-3 months. Just wasn't sure how I was going to end it while focusing on the GRE. Sorry!

And I really feel like this needs another title, but I still don't know what else to call it and it feels too late now.

**Practice Makes Perfect**

**Chapter 6.2**

**Lightning**

_I need another drink,_ Light thought as she sat on the couch next to Fang.

She hadn't planned on drinking that much while at the party, but she was finding that she liked the feel of it. _And I'm an adult, damn it! _

_I can do what I want!_

Lightning might think that, but she didn't believe it – at least, not most of the time. She knew she'd always place certain things – _Serah _– above her own desires, but the two mojitos did seem to have a loosening effect on her.

"Do you think I could have another drink?" The pinkette asked Fang. She usually wouldn't have even asked and would have gone without, but she couldn't seem to hold the words inside.

"Yeah, sure. What would you like?"

"I don't know. What are the options?"

The brunette laughed a little bit and smiled. "I'm not sure. I could make you another mojito or I could grab you some craft beer that I brought? And there's probably some other options I don't know about yet."

"Hmmm. I'll try a beer."

Fang sauntered back into the kitchen area. Light watched as the woman was able to avoid the other boisterous partygoers. She realized that she was surprisingly not as annoyed by the partyers as she usually would have been. The night had been good so far. Light felt unexpectedly less awkward with Fang than she could remember feeling with any other person other than family members.

_The alcohol also probably helped._

Light took her eyes off of the other college students and decided to let her head fall back to rest atop the blue couch. The ceiling was a dull, untextured white with a few inefficient lights. She let her mind quickly wander from Serah to Fang to what she was doing here to why she hadn't ever done something like this before…

"You okay there?"

Light brought her head forward again to see a big smile and questioning eyes. "Yeah, I'm good… just thinking."

"Whatcha thinking about?" Fang handed her one of the two beers she was holding.

"Uhhh… life." Light's uncertainty _(a.k.a. loophole of the truth) _and slight lift of her shoulders making it half a question.

"Ah, so nothing major." Fang's smirk making sure that Light knew she was joking.

"Yeah, exactly," Light retorted with a smile.

Fang took back her seat next to the pinkette. "My favorite thing to think about while drinking." Her beer bottle went to her lips as if to confirm the brunette's opinion.

Light brought up her own bottle to follow Fang's lead. She only allowed in a mouthful of brown liquid, and she was glad that it was only a small amount.

She did not like it.

But swallowed anyway – _that's what she said._

Fang noticed the soured expression on her face and the difficult swallow. The brunette couldn't help but laugh slightly.

"Too hoppy for you?"

"What?" _What does that even mean?_

"Too much hops?"

"Huh?" _The rephrasing isn't helping._

Fang opened her mouth but no words came out on the first try. "Is this your first beer?"

"Yeah."

Light received an incredulous look before they both started laughing.

"Perhaps this isn't the best beer to start you out with then. Let me grab you another kind. Just a sec." Fang put her own beer on the end table beside the couch.

"Wait! …I don't want to waste this though." Lightning lifted up her own bottle.

"Haha, it's okay. I can drink it, and if I don't get to it I'm sure it will be taken care of by someone." Fang had already started walking off again.

The brunette came back shortly with a different bottle in hand this time: clear glass with a golden brown liquid inside. Even though the previous bottle had been brown and she had no knowledge of beer, Lightning had a feeling this one would definitely taste different.

"Here," Fang said while handing her the beer. "This one is an apple ale… hardly tastes like beer, really."

"Oh… good, I guess. At least, 'good' for now, haha."

Lightning took a swig of the beer, this time much more hopeful it'd be good tasting. Thankfully, she wasn't disappointed. It was crisp and cool and kind of tasted like soda – _which I don't drink, but I have tried _– except there was a hint of alcohol in it.

"Mmmm, that's good. Great choice."

Fang laughed, picked up her previous beer, and sat down next to the pinkette, this time making it so they were sitting a little bit closer than before. "No problem. It's a great starter beer. But I admit, I never would've taken you for a fruity beer person."

Lightning's hand paused on its way up to allow another drink of the apple ale. "What is the connotation with fruity beer?"

"You don't get out much, do you?"

"Uhhh, it depends on what you mean by getting out."

"I'll take that as a 'no,'" Fang teased. "There's nothing really bad or wrong with fruity beers, it's just often joked that only wusses drink them – which can be pretty annoying, cuz they can be pretty delicious."

"Oh. Well, I guess I might just have to toughen up at some point, but that time is _not_ going to be tonight."

"Yeah, I didn't think so. But no worries, a good portion of the people here frequent the gym and know that you're a badass… they'll just be confused by your drink of choice."

"'Badass,' eh?" Lightning said with a raise of an eyebrow and smirk. She could see Fang freeze for a moment. _Hahaha! Gotcha!_ The pinkette wasn't exactly aware that she was trying to catch Fang doing anything, but felt pretty smug and elated nevertheless.

"Well... uhhh...yeah..?"

Lightning could tell that Fang was floundering _(and blushing?)_. "I'm kidding," she said as she lightly grabbed Fang's forearm and smiled into her pretty green eyes. _I don't want to scare off the woman. This actually seems to be going pretty well. _"Of course I know I'm a badass – it was a trick question."

The brunette let out a slight sigh of relief.

_I really need to loosen up a bit more so people don't think I'm so serious all the time. Well, at least in front of certain people. Others can walk on eggshells in front of me all day long... for example, a guy named after a certain type of precipitation._

Nov 2nd, 2014

**(Teaser)**

"I'm getting bored of Spoons. Let's do something else." Yuj whined.

"What do you have in mind?" asked Lebreau.

Vanille could see Yuj smirking in her peripheral vision. _I have a feeling I'm gonna love or hate this..._


End file.
